I was late to the 2048 train. I only got the game last week and I finally beat it yesterday. I feel strangely accomplished.
In playing it a couple hundred times, I realized there is sort of a strategy to it, even if I didn’t exactly figure out where the “2s” spawn. Towards the end, I came close to winning many times and then finally did so by keeping these things in mind:
Stack numbers. Start by pressing left or right until you can’t, then go the other direction.
Don’t go down. When you have enough stacked, go up. Don’t go down. Going down leads to death. Alternatively you can only go down and avoid going up.
Get rid of 2s in the top corner ASAP. Turn the 2’s into a higher number ASAP so you don’t get stuck.
Careful with 2s and 4s beside each other. Think carefully when this happens and get unstuck or this usually leads to death.
Remember to feed yourself when you get addicted to playing the game.
Mom’s favourite thing is AYCE sushi so for her birthday we took her to 168 Sushi Buffet where they took on the new trend of iPad menus. We went for lunch and I don’t think they took reservations so we waited over 20 minutes for a table. It was one of those cold Polar Vortex days but people kept coming in and were all eager for a table at this relatively small restaurant.
Lunches at the restaurant are cheaper but do not have sashimi, so if you want the raw fish without all the rice than dinner would be preferred. They did have a large assortment of non-japanese items. There was Thai, Korean and Chinese dim sum dishes that were available in addition to the Sushi and included in the lunch price ($14.99 – I think).
This was my first experience ordering off an iPad menu. It had this large case screwed on it to prevent the user from pressing the home button and going outside the menu. I felt it accommodated the large food selection well and had lovely photos that made all the food look very appetizing. The annoying part was that sometimes we would order something and it wouldn’t come. I enjoyed this salmon salad a lot and ordered more but it didn’t appear. I tried an additional time and the screen told me it was coming, but never did.
In my opinion the iPad was a tool that enabled the workers to be lazy. They could blame complicated orders not coming on technology. Waitresses only came when you confirmed an order on the iPad or when they were delivering food. There was often many empty plates waiting on our table to be taken away. I eventually figured out how to call a person by confirming an empty order.I curiously wonder what it must be like to work in the kitchen that deals with the receiving end of these iPad orders. I feel like the whole idea is a bit of a marketing gimmick.
The food was decent and there was a large selection of it, but it was not particularly memorable. Soups were a bit cold for my liking. However, the fried pudding dessert is recommended.
As a kid growing up in the 90s, I was really excited when the Tamagotchi L.i.f.e app came out. I had a million virtual pets when I was little including the nano sumo fighters, babies, pikachu pet and of course the original Tamagotchi.
When I first got the app, I had all the notifications turned on and took care of the virtual pet’s every need. I even played games instead of feeding it candy to increase its happiness. I ended up with this guy:
The infamous Spermagotchi. My least favourite one of the pets. So I killed him.
This time I opted for a more neglectful approach. I fed him candy instead of played games and did not heed to it right away. I GOT THIS GUY IN ANOTHER COLOUR. I killed it again.
The third time I had no strategy, but I switched it over to classic mode.
In the past, I have tried so many different to-list programs and apps, but none of those ever worked or I’d forget about them and just resort to the traditional pen and paper. That was until I discovered HabitRPG. I’ve been using them since the beginning of their Kickstarter campaign (which is now more than fully funded) and my productivity has certainly increased.
What’s cool about this to-do list and habit list is that it is like a game. There are a few game-like applications out there, but they are too much game. This one is simple, you gain experience points and gold and silver. These can be used to buy weapons and armour as well as any guilty pleasures you can custom define. For example, you can make that Game of Thrones episode cost 5 gold so you can feel like you earned it.
It runs on an honor system. You check off all the things you do right and take off points for what you do wrong. If you cheat, you’re just cheating yourself anyway. There’s also a Chrome Extension you can use to gain and lose points for vice and productive sites.
The site is still in it’s infancy with more upcoming features and a promised iPhone/Android app. They’ve just introduced a “party” feature so you can compete with your friends and perhaps do group challenges and boss battles in the future.
I spent a lot of time commuting lately and short-level games have been great for the ride. I finally I beat Chillingo’s Cut the Rope. I’ve had the game on my iPad for quite some time but I recently restarted it on my iPhone and within a month of commuting finally finished the game.
If you live in a box, Cut the Rope is a cute little physics game where you literally cut rope, avoid traps or use things to your advantage in order to get the candy to the cute little dinosaur. The game is only 99 cents in the iTunes app store and has over 300 levels.
Levels are arranged in “boxes” and each box has a certain type of theme that determines the types of traps in the level. Like angry birds you can gain up to 3 stars per level. I’ll be honest and say I didn’t get 3 stars for all the levels (and I think if I did that for every game it would take forever).
It’s definitely worth the money with the amount of levels and the promise of more to come.
I went over my 1GB data plan today. I decided to turn my phone off instead of incurring any more fees. I’ve only had a smartphone since Christmas but I already feel like a cripple without it’s data-eating ways. Having an iPhone without 3G is as pointless as popcorn without butter.
Here are some things you can’t do without 3G:
iMessage: By default, iPhones running iOS 5 and higher send iMessages. I couldn’t receive messages from any one with an iPhone or send any without manually clicking “send as SMS” first. In addition, without data you can’t sent people pictures of your dog.
Social Networking: Can’t tweet, Facebook, Pinterest, Chime.in, Tumblr or Foursquare what I’m eating.
Find Out Where I am: I had to go pick something up in an area I’m not so familiar with. I took a streetcar, but didn’t get off on time. I even turned on my 3G (getting lost seems like a valid reason to). However, the service must disable itself after you too much over your data plan, because it would not work. I was stranded and had to ask Nash where exactly I was in relation to where I wanted to go.
Without internet to distract you, here are things you end up doing:
Looking at people on the bus: Since my head is not down and immersed in some sort of social network, I have to focus my eyes somewhere. Looking out the window resulted in a lot of sand in my eyes so I started looking around inside the bus. There’s a ton of funny looking people in the world.
Reading other people’s things: I ended up accidentally reading part of someone’s erotic novel.
Listening to brown people talk in circles: “you know?” They seemed to be having something delicious for dinner though.
Thinking to yourself: Sometimes I write blog posts while I’m on the train, but today I thought this one up in my head.
Thank goodness my cellphone billing period restarts tomorrow. One day of this nonsense was enough.
In the past, whenever I hailed a cab in Toronto, I would be constantly rejected for not going a far enough distance. For example, none would take me from Sound Academy (most inconvenient location ever) to Union Station. However, recently I decided to try the new Uber Taxi service and I think it may solve all my taxi problems.
The service operates with a smartphone app. It pinpoints your locations as well as how far away the closest cars are. Once you hit the big green button you get a text and a cab instantly heads to you and your phone keeps track of it’s location. They’ll call you once they are outside. The cars are black and sleek and makes me feel like I have a million dollars. There are two types of cars you can choose from; a normal black car and an SUV.
Another neat feature about Uber Taxi service is the payment is done through the app with a credit card. There is no worry about having cash at hand, and they don’t need to know how much you tip. The service fee (of $8) is a little bit more than the normal $4 you pay to get in regular cabs, but at the end of the ride you don’t have to add tip (and there’s no option to even if you wanted). There is a minimum charge of $15, but at least that means they will take you anywhere no matter the distance.
I love that Uber has considered business through an app. It’s innovated and smart, and I’ll definitely be riding them again! It’s still in testing in Toronto but the other cab companies can learn a thing or two from their business model.
When Fruit Ninja first came out, I thought it was pretty stupid. Then I got it on my iPhone and I liked how I could play quick games when I was waiting for the train.
If you don’t know, it’s a game where you simply slice the fruit that is popping up on the screen. Arcade and classic mode has bombs that either lower your score or kill you. Zen mode you just slice to a timer. It’s pretty simple. There are also bonus fruit that can be bought that raise your score.
The game would have probably been not as interesting if it weren’t for the Dojo. It is where the “unlockables” were listed. They were mainly for aesthetic values, such as different designs of blades and backgrounds but a goal is a goal and I finally unlocked them all.
Unless you care about raising your score, the game doesn’t really have too much replay value. So off in the vault of beaten games it goes.
It’s been a while since I have beaten an iOS game. But now that I commute (A LOT), I have a few on my phone to amuse myself during down times. The majority of my iOS gaming still happens on the iPad that I don’t really carry around with me any more. Angry Birds I’ve never actually beat yet. I think I got stuck and gave up. However, Angry Birds In Space, adds a whole new level of complexity, gravity. The whole premise is there are planets and their orbits can suck you around in a loop and you must use this to your advantage. Some of the birds are the same as in previous games, but a few have changed.
The addition of gravity gives the game a whole different feel. You’d think winning a level was a fluke before? Well, you never know where on earth the orbit will swing you sometimes. The only thing I didn’t like about this new game was that harder levels had to be purchased for another 99 cents.. so for now I am going to cross this game off as beaten!
My period of computerlessness only lasted for mere few days. I didn’t expect Dell to ship my laptop back so quick and in tip top shape. I survived the past few days with my iPad and iPhone and blogged occasionally from work when it wasn’t too busy. I was surprised how efficient I was at music blogging when I had a limited time frame to do it.
In addition I also realized the following:
– I had to cut my nails so I could type on a screen
– I don’t have anything that can read SD cards
– texting has made me a better typer on my phone than my iPad
– I alwaysforget to hit space onthe iPad
– Google + is actually really pretty
– nights seem darker without a laptop’s eerie glow
Tiana Feng 